Our own political prisoner
Trip Start
Sep 17, 2007
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Trip End
Oct 08, 2008
Robben Island,
South Africa
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Except for when it was actually part of the mainland, Robben Island has pretty much been a prison land. The name was introduced when the Dutch arrived and saw that it was covered with seals, and because robbe is seal in Dutch, we have ourselves a bastardization yet again. Then the Dutch used it as a prison, then the English, and then the Apartheid government, which is where our story begins.
To get to Robben Island you have pretty much one option: book the ferry and get a pass on a guided tour
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. Because otherwise you're not allowed on the island. It's one of those national park things. On the ferry there's an informative video, which is informative, but not nearly as entertaining as the lady on the bus. So we all got off the ferry and on the bus, and our lady had a great time driving us around telling us fabulous factoids. First, I guess I should note that at one point it wasn't really a prison, per se, but it was an isolation village for all lepers until someone found a cure for leprosy. So we did have a little jaunt to the Leper graveyard and the old church. There's also a village on the island that is occupied by staff. Back in the day it was occupied by prison personnel, now it's occupied by museum and park staff. Also on the island is a unique lighthouse, unique in that it blinks instead of turning. There's a very small number of these critters on the planet. Also there are some super massive and ultra high tech WWII guns on the island, but they were never used because they were finished two months after the war was over. At which point our guide pointed out TIS: This is Africa, and it runs on Africa time.
After being driven around the island and attempting to take photos out of windows over the laps of three or four other people, we were released and sent to prison
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. Our bus guide pointed out that we might be the only people who pay to go to prison. She found it quite amusing. The rather unique thing about Robben Island is that former Robben Island political prisoners are tour guides. Of course, at this point all the oldies are in their retirement years like Mandela, so the political prisoners were the later generation of political dissidents. Our political prisoner had attitude, not in a bad way. He talked so fast it was almost hard to keep up, but he had a lot to say (a lot of which he didn't because he was trying to get in a whole story in three seconds and sometimes jumbled a few words), and I thought it would be really cool to just have a sit and listen to stories. But we had to tour the prison. We saw the blocks where prisoners were kept and were told how they were ordered. For some time the Apartheid government kept political and criminal prisoners together for maximum harassment, and while this did cause some unpleasantness for the political prisoners (at least according to our prisoner), they ultimately used it against their captors by turning the criminals over to their way of thinking. I'd have to say the highlight was when our prisoner informed us how, if attacked, he could break off a toilet bowl and use it to smash a man's head. Charming. Less violent perhaps was the way the prisoners made a communication system out of toilet pipes, talking to each other with taps while sticking their heads in toilets
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. Mandela's age group preferred writing notes on paper. What can you do? Speaking of Mandela, his is the only isolation cell with stuff in it, and it is one of the highlights of the tour, with a million people squeezing in to see the same thing all at once. Our group actually ran into a group coming from the other direction, which confused me horribly, but during which time I met the German boys who cooked the ostrich egg in Stellenbosch. Small world. Mandela spent 18 years in prison on Robben Island and was the only prisoner ever flown to the island. Maybe they knew he'd be president... At least that's what our prisoner suggested. You're supposed to giggle, just so you know. After a whirlwind tour we made our way back to the boat so as not to be stranded on the island. A brief walk on the waterfront satisfied our curiosity on that front, so we went back to the hostel to crash.
Erin
